sluggerdood
Reefing newb
can you use crushed quarts that they use as blasting media (so its sand) in a tank. just wondering starting a new build and llooking for something cheap. its 7 bucks for 100 lbs
crushed quarts?
- Thread starter sluggerdood
- Start date
Northstar24
The Tang Herder
I would bet that silicate based, or has a bunch of silicate in it, which would lead to endless algae blooms. Stick with Aragonite
little_fish
Moderator
+1 North
Kully3xf
Reefer Madness
the quartz that is blasted is intrusive igneous rock. Meaning it is formed under the earth from cooling lava etc. quartz is made soly of SiO2 or silicon dioxide. but non the less it is composed of almost entirely silicon. the biggest problem with silicon sand is that it will leach silicon into your water and fuel massive diatom blooms. also silicon is very sharp because of it's crystal formation and any type of sand sifter like a goby could easily do some damage to tender gills. Another reason is that because of silica sand's crystal structure the particles will pack together and restrict the flow of water as such and the shape of aragonite is more of an egg and will allow better water flow and wont compress and create a hard pack.
